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Salvador Dali Museum | St. Petersburg Florida

The Salvador Dali Museum of St. Petersburg Florida has officially opened the doors of this stunning new building on the waters of the Tampa Bay. The new museum has replaced another that housed a massive collection of Dali’s works for nearly 30 years, but was not itself indicative of the artist’s wild imagination. We at TheCoolist have been patrons of The Dali for a decade, and our excitement about this new home has been long-standing.

The new Salvador Dali Museum provides 68,000 interior square feet for Dali’s artwork and admirers. The new space features 100s of Dali’s paintings and other artwork, which range from postcard size illustrations to massive, 15′ masterworks. Everything from the Persistence of Memory to the Hallucinogenic Toreador are housed in this building, including the largest collection of Dali masterworks in the world. The new design, courtesy of HOK Florida, is representative of Dali’s creative spirit and is a fitting home to history’s most famed surrealist painter.

The new Salvador Dali Museum was designed not only to represent the artist, but to protect his works from the elements. While hurricanes are quite rare in the Tampa Bay, this building has been designed to withstand a category 3 storm– even the geodesic glass facade. The section which houses Dali’s art is enclosed within concrete that is at least a foot thick in all directions. Standing at over 75′ high, this new structure can weather a direct hit from a hurricane and open its doors to the public the following day.

If you find yourself in the Tampa area, a visit to the Salvador Dali Museum is a must. The sheer volume of this collection, especially the masterworks, provides an ample treat to fans of this great surrealist. This new museum structure is a great improvement over the original, one much more successful in communicating the artist’s vision. [photography by moris moreno]